Shopping in Ixtapa & Zihuatanejo, Mexico: Handcrafts, Souvenirs & Malls

Ixtapa's Shopping Area
(Handcraft Markets)

For those who love shopping, bargaining and spending long hours browsing and trying on clothes or imagining how those lovely folk art pieces might look in your living room or office, there is a fantastic shopping area that attracts shoppers, just a few meters from the Hotel Zone in Ixtapa. It is located on Paseo Ixtapa (Ixtapa Ocean Drive), right across from the hotels.

Ixtapa's main shopping district covers two large blocks with lots of stores and handcraft markets called Plaza Las Fuentes, Plaza La Puerta or Plaza Los Patios. The area, best known as "Zona Comercial de Ixtapa" (Ixtapa's Shopping Area) or as "Mercados de Artesanias" (Handcraft Markets), sells an array of souvenirs to bring back from your trip to Ixtapa Zihuatanejo. There is such variety that there is bound to be something that will catch your eye.

 

Downtown Zihuatanejo

There are many nice streets and walkways, where there is little or no traffic at all in the downtown area and make for a great shopping experience. There are all kinds of shops that are brightly adorned and carry all sorts of items. You can find clothes, shoes for warm weather, as well as hats and beachwear for all budgets. For those big spenders, there are some art galleries in Zihuatanejo's most traditional area, where you can see and buy artwork by local artists, sculptors and master silversmiths.

There is a lot of silver from Taxco on sale in the shops in downtown Zihuatanejo, as well as items from different states of Mexico. You can find handicrafts such as incredibly ornate trees of life, colorful pottery from the State of Mexico, as well as elegant leather bags, belts and shoes from Leon, Guanajuato.

There are some shops that lure you in with delicious aromas of the products they sell, like the excellent coffee produced in the highlands of Guerrero. They also offer creams and natural oils like suntan oil made from coconut or the popular "Crema de Tortuga," made from a blend of herbal ingredients, used to relieve the pain of excessive exposure to the sun.